OtterKnow Kids EncyclopediaMount Rushmore is a giant carving of four U.S. presidents’ faces on the side of a granite mountain. It is in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The four presidents are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.
Each face is about 60 feet tall, which is as tall as a six-story building. A sculptor named Gutzon Borglum designed the carving. About 400 workers used dynamite and drills to shape the rock. They started in 1927 and finished in 1941. It took 14 years to complete.
- About three million people visit Mount Rushmore every year.
- The granite is very hard, so the faces only wear down about one inch every 10,000 years!
- The mountain is 5,725 feet above sea level.
- Workers removed about 450,000 tons of rock to create the carvings.
